Hi Patrons!
Blender 3.0 is coming at the beginning of December, so in this video I just want to quickly talk about it and share some other cool things that have been happening in the community.
Have a great day!
2021-09-06 11:05:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi Patrons!
In this video, I show you you can use texture-painted surfaces as light sources in a Blender scene. With a creative use of this technique, you can create custom light sources and reflection patterns that would otherwise be difficult to achieve with regular light nodes or HDRIs.
2021-08-30 11:23:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi Patrons!
I've just released a video where I show you how to project video data across multiple objects in a scene without having to set up any UV data. This is great for getting all kinds of motion graphics effects and can even be used as a creative lighting source with the Cycles rendering engine.
2021-08-23 11:08:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Pierrick Picaut has been working for a long time on a new animation course that was just released today. We've spoken on call occasionally and I've recommended some of their previous content on my channel in the past because they always manage to provide a strong sense of value with their educational courses.
The new course is called 'Alive!' and it's extremely...
2021-08-13 14:40:21 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi Patrons!
I've just released a video where I demonstrate a way that you can create visually-complex materials from simple non-seamless textures by making creative use of procedural scattering techniques along with ambient occlusion / edge detection masks.
This technique is great for quickly building up a library of visually-distinctive materials that will adapt to the shape of the object.<...
2021-08-03 11:34:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi Patrons!
I've just released this video sharing a variety of resources that will help you learn how to produce motion graphics for Blender, with a particular emphasis on VJ Loops (looping animations that usually accompany music).
I've made sure to try and share both free and paid content to make things as accessible for people as possible.
Hi Patrons!
I've been working on a variety of projects recently, both artistic and technical, however for this week's video I couldn't decide on just one thing to talk about.
So today we're doing something a bit different. Come and listen to me ramble in the 'video that should not exist' - I'll talk about some of the things I've been working on and also give you some behind-the-scenes perspe...
2021-07-18 16:21:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Recently I've been experimenting with easier ways to create Python addons for Blender. The new visual script tool called Serpens uses a really well designed node-based approach to let you create addons from inside the Blender interface. In their latest version, they have also provided support for my EasyBPY module, meaning it's now easier and faster to create addons than ever before.
I've just released this video talking about the asset browser currently in development for Blender. It has a lot of potential and I'm quite excited to see how it will develop over the coming months. As a content creator, I'm especially interested in exploring how this will simplify the process of letting artists import and drag content into their scenes. Hopefully this video will get you interested e...
2021-07-01 12:26:40 +0000 UTC View Post
The Blender community has been very busy recently with lots of people working on cool new tools, educational content and resources. In this video I wanted to share some of my favorite recent projects.
2021-06-24 11:28:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi Patrons,
I've just released a video where I show you how to export meshes from Blender to Unreal Engine 5 and make a camera animation. There are a few things to keep in mind throughout this process such as including smoothing information on the meshes and giving lighting time to calculate before starting the render.
Hopefully this will help anyone who is interested in combining the sof...
2021-06-16 10:48:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi Patrons!
I've recently been working with Charan from Just 3D Things on a procedural moss product.
Since this is a collaborative project, it is only available on Blender Market because Gumroad does not have a functional revenue-split system. However this sadly means that I can't generate discou...
2021-06-10 16:07:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Since Blender 2.93 LTS has been released, I thought I'd take a moment to give my take on the new features. There's lots of exciting new things to play with (especially in regards to geometry nodes) but I'm particularly interested in the improvements made to the EEVEE rendering engine.
Watch it here!&nb...
2021-06-06 14:25:27 +0000 UTC View Post
I've been quite excited to try out the new Nanite and Lumen features of Unreal Engine 5 and I'm happy to say that their implementation is super impressive. I've created this video to provide an explanation for what they are and to demonstrate how they work inside of the engine.
Watch it here. 2021-06-03 16:40:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everyone!
I've just put out a breakdown video for the Epoch animated short, providing a collection of tips for volumetrics, lighting, particles, file management and more.
Stay safe!
2021-06-02 10:57:32 +0000 UTC View Post
I've just released a two-minute music short made with EEVEE in Blender. Patrons have been included in the credits as a thanks for your support!
2021-05-28 13:58:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everyone!
I've just put out a new discussion video sharing my thoughts on whether it's worth going to university, especially in relation to 3D art and creative-technical fields.
2021-05-22 11:46:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everyone!
I've recently put out a video compiling some of the best places to find useful collections of Blender tips. There's a mix of free and paid content in here and there's bound to be something that will help to speed up your content creation workflow.
Hope you're all doing well!
2021-05-20 13:14:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everyone!
I have just released version 8 of the BY-GEN addon for Blender (2.92/2.93), along with a video explaining the new features and changes.
This version includes a new panel in the scene properties to help you import templates for building your own structural generators.
<...
2021-05-08 12:55:06 +0000 UTC View Post
To accompany my recent artwork, I have put together this 10 minute video sharing some tips that might help to speed up your rendering and workflow with Cycles in Blender. We talk about tile sizes, light paths, render regions, the new Cycles X project being developed and more.
Hi everyone!
I've just released a new video to my personal podcast channel (Holtcast) talking about the thought process behind the BlenderNest channel and podcast. I discuss why we've decided to turn it into an open community and the new kinds of content that this will allow for.
If you haven't already, feel free to join the D...
2021-04-22 18:44:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi Patrons! Given that I've been hard at work on community building this past week (as you would have heard in our last behind the scenes post), I thought it would be nice to draw some attention to a few relatively new Blender YouTubers.
2021-04-17 19:36:15 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone!
I've released two new videos recently, one on the main channel and one on the secondary podcast channel.
In this video I provide a breakdown of my recent experiments of building modular structures in Blender. I show you my various attempts at making a piece of art and discuss some important things to keep in mind...
2021-04-09 09:50:26 +0000 UTC View Post
I've just released a video where I show some experiments of rendering Minecraft art in Blender, taking a look at a couple of tools available to help people to so.
As well as this, episode four of the Holtcast podcast has been uploaded to the new channel, talking abou...
2021-04-01 10:22:00 +0000 UTC View Post
I've just released a video showing how you can bake the results of procedural materials into texture maps which can be used in other software (such as game engines). Depending on your workflow, this can eliminate the need for using texture painting software, especially for repetitive tasks like darkening cavities or wearing away edges. With an understanding of how node systems work in Blender, you co...
2021-03-06 11:38:33 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi Patrons!
I'm just writing this post to let you know that the next episode of the Holtcast is available to listen to on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, Apple, Google and Acast. In this episode I am joined by other members of the BlenderNest group as we discuss a range of subjects, primarily the parts of life that s...
2021-02-17 13:09:46 +0000 UTC View Post